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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 5904708" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>People talk about this like it was some sort of inevitability that the OGL would bring about a major, direct competitor to WotC. In fact, while that is what happened, it was by no means a given.</p><p></p><p>Leaving aside questions of how much of its status as the "industry leader" that WotC has lost in the last few years, back when Fourth Edition was announced, everyone assumed that the third-party publishers would fall in line behind WotC and publish for 4E if they were allowed to do so - chief among this belief were the third-party publishers themselves, who were eager to keep their products hitched to the newest iteration of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game.</p><p></p><p>WotC, however, instead gave the third-parties long periods of silence punctuated by half-finished thoughts. By the time they managed to produce the GSL, the bigger third-party publishers, such as Paizo, had already been forced to go in a different direction just to remain solvent - they simply didn't have the time to wait around and do nothing while WotC made up its mind. That the GSL was more restrictive (and included that awful "non-compete with 3.5" clause in its first release) was just the cherry on the feculent sunday.</p><p></p><p>Had WotC immediately declared that 4E would be released under the OGL, Paizo and the other big third-parties would have immediately jumped on board the 4E bandwagon. Sure, there would have still been Mutants & Masterminds, d20 Conan, and other "competing" products out there, but it's extremely doubtful that any of them would have risen in such prominence as to challenge 4E on its lofty perch (and heck, some of them might have adopted 4E-style rules of their own).</p><p></p><p>It was WotC's own inaction in response to the question of open gaming, and not the Open Gaming License, that created the stiff competition they're facing now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 5904708, member: 8461"] People talk about this like it was some sort of inevitability that the OGL would bring about a major, direct competitor to WotC. In fact, while that is what happened, it was by no means a given. Leaving aside questions of how much of its status as the "industry leader" that WotC has lost in the last few years, back when Fourth Edition was announced, everyone assumed that the third-party publishers would fall in line behind WotC and publish for 4E if they were allowed to do so - chief among this belief were the third-party publishers themselves, who were eager to keep their products hitched to the newest iteration of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game. WotC, however, instead gave the third-parties long periods of silence punctuated by half-finished thoughts. By the time they managed to produce the GSL, the bigger third-party publishers, such as Paizo, had already been forced to go in a different direction just to remain solvent - they simply didn't have the time to wait around and do nothing while WotC made up its mind. That the GSL was more restrictive (and included that awful "non-compete with 3.5" clause in its first release) was just the cherry on the feculent sunday. Had WotC immediately declared that 4E would be released under the OGL, Paizo and the other big third-parties would have immediately jumped on board the 4E bandwagon. Sure, there would have still been Mutants & Masterminds, d20 Conan, and other "competing" products out there, but it's extremely doubtful that any of them would have risen in such prominence as to challenge 4E on its lofty perch (and heck, some of them might have adopted 4E-style rules of their own). It was WotC's own inaction in response to the question of open gaming, and not the Open Gaming License, that created the stiff competition they're facing now. [/QUOTE]
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